


In the Key of F Sharp

by Delphinapterus



Category: Umbrella Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 20:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/299521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delphinapterus/pseuds/Delphinapterus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vanya before the Prime-8s.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Key of F Sharp

**Author's Note:**

  * For [katsumeragi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katsumeragi/gifts).



> Thank you to my beta who caught my missing commas and made this much better.

Being part of the Umbrella Academy meant being under control, being at the right place at the right time with the right equipment. Mr. Monocle expected nothing less; they had all long since learned to do as he told them. He hadn't rescued them to be useless. They all had their purpose, except Number Seven, of course. Number Seven never had to be anywhere because Number Seven didn't have any powers or any particular talent.

Vanya Hargreeves had hated being Number Seven, who was only good for music lessons, since she was old enough to watch the rest of the Academy go on patrol. The day the Eiffel Tower flew into space, Vanya had watched the Academy save the world and get ice cream for a reward. She didn't get ice cream (really, what did you do to deserve it, Mr. Monocle had asked and she'd had to reply, nothing) and Diego had been the only one to tell her about zombie robot Gustave Eiffel inside the Tower. That was the day she knew she would never need to worry about going on patrol or being in the right place at the right time. She was the Academy failure. Good violinists just didn't get to save the world, no matter what Pogo might say.

Vanya did not being to see the positive side to being Number Seven, the useless Academy member, until she was a teenager. Allison, who had a normal boring boyfriend, had to invest excuses and outright lies to get out of the Academy to see him. Valuable members of the Academy did not go out for non-essential trips without being cleared by Mr. Monocle. Vanya, being neither useful nor truly part of the team, could come and go as she pleased.

This is why she was cutting down a back alley just as the supper hour news was coming on in the televisions that lined the display window in the shop, ten streets and many degrees of respectability better, behind her. Klaus, Diego, and Allison were on the patrol roster, so they would be in the city, just like her. The rest of the Academy would be sitting down to their supper with Pogo and Mother. Vanya knew by now that nobody, except perhaps Pogo, would wonder why she wasn't at the table. If she had been a real member of the Academy, Abhijat would tell Mr. Monocle and he would call her before him — but she wasn't, so nothing would happen. Diego had always said that her power was being invisible to Mr. Monocle, and by extension Abhijat, but Diego was like that - trying to make her feel less like an cuckoo dropped into the Academy.

Spider's was the best club in the city for real music. Music that screamed and cried and told everyone the world was wrong. It wasn't close and repressive, like the orchestra pits of concert halls. Spider's was free and Vanya wished, sometimes in her wildest flights of fancy, that she could live above it so every single minute of every day she would be soaked in its energy. She'd told Diego about her fantasy once, when they'd been sharing a headset to listen to the latest Azmatics EP, and he hadn't laughed. Diego understood about the energy at Spider's. Maybe, one day, we'll move out and get an apartment and be real together, Diego had said, with his eye closed and his hand resting just next to hers. She'd hooked her little finger around his and smiled. It was nice to share a dream even if they both knew Mr. Monocle would never allow Number Two to leave the Academy.

Vanya has long dark hair. It's not the short punk cut that would be most appropriate at Spider's but she still hasn’t worked up the courage to cut it. Mr. Monocle told her once that her hair was her best feature. It was the only time he ever complimented her. When she goes to Spider's, she pulls it into a long pony tail that whips around when she dances. She does her make-up in the light of a streetlight because she doesn’t want the others to see her and ask questions. They won't understand and she doesn't want to know what would happen if they knew Diego gets it. That he comes with her. That she invited him and showed him a world that isn't the Academy. She tilts the mirror to see better. Liner and lipstick black and thick enough to hide anything. She never bothers with the heavy white foundation that is so popular, because Diego says she doesn't need it. With the lipstick and liner, he says she looks as pale as Klaus. Just what she wants.

Tonight a girl grabs her hair and pulls. Yanking her head back and bringing tears to her eyes. Then the girl yanks harder. If Diego was with her he'd probably punch the girl, but since he isn't, Vanya does it for herself. Her fist collides hard with the girl's nose and the blood blossoms over her lips and Vanya's fist, red and warm. The girl snarls but the crowd surges as the Azmatics hit the crescendo of the song and they are separated before a real fight can start. Vanya is secretly glad. She hates to fight without Diego. Mr. Monocle made sure she knew the basics so she could take care of herself.  
He'd said to her, "we do not have the time to rescue you all the time Number Seven so you had best learn this well."

Vanya has a bootleg of Commissar's first show from their new tour, tucked into her bag next to the make-up Allison asked her to get and the bag of gummy sours for Klaus (they'll pay her in the morning) when she finally gets back to the Academy. Her scalp still aches from the girl's attack, even though she's long since pulled her hair out of its pony tail so it can swing free. It's dark and cloudless. Space is probably on the roof watching the stars again. He doesn't bother to call down to her and she pretends not to notice him watching her. Number Seven has no place on the team and Space is only interested in being the team leader. They never have anything to say to each other.

Diego is waiting in her room. He's stretched out on her bed staring at the ceiling and plucking out what Vanya recognizes as the simple bass line to the Azmatics' biggest hit. If they ever have a band, she thinks, they're going to be better than the popular three chord style. They're going to write the music that is going to take punk out of the clubs and into the light. They'll write songs to show the world just how good punk can be. She just has to work up the nerve to start a band. She knows Diego will do it if she asks but she feels too new to jump into the scene just yet. Once she knows the right people, and knows how to make it work, she'll ask Diego and find them a drummer. For now, it's up to her to show Diego the music he misses when he's on patrol.

She tosses the bootleg to Diego who catches it easily. He hasn't fumbled a catch in more than a year but she still worries about how he is adapting to the loss of his eye even if Pogo says he's going good. It's just another reminder of how Mr. Monocle has failed them. She would never say it aloud but if Mr. Monocle could give Allison her hand back then he should be able to do better for Diego than an eye-patch. Diego slips the tape into the player and pats the bed beside him. She kicks off her boots and curls up beside him. His body is always warm, and she spreads her cold hands over his side, enjoying the way his body heat warms her. He doesn't say anything, but when he positions the headphones so they can share, he pulls her closer to him. He shifts so she can lay tucked tight against his aside. She imagines that under the music she can hear his heart beating.

Diego's hand strokes her hair. His fingers catch on a knot and tug slightly. She winces at the way it makes her scalp ache, still tender from the attack. Diego's stroking pauses and he makes a questioning noise.

"Some girl tried to make me bald," she answers.

"You let her?" Diego asks, surprised.

"Of course not, I punched her."

Diego laughs. "That's more like it."

They lay quietly, Diego stroking her hair methodically, as the last song draws to a close and the player clicks off.

"Cut my hair for me?" Vanya asks, breaking the silence.

"Anything for you," he says, and she knows he's only half joking.

Vanya sits on the toilet because she needs to be shorter than Diego and standing is just too awkward.

"You don't have any scissors."

She shrugs. "Klaus borrowed them for something and never gave them back. You know how he is."

"I can't cut your hair," Diego says, as he gently runs his fingers through the long strands.

"Just use your knife," Vanya tells him impatiently.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

He pulls one of the knives he always wears in a wrist sheath. The blade shines in the light. Diego knows how to take care of things. He takes a hank of her hair in his hand and starts to saw through it with the knife. Vanya can feel the movement in her scalp as Diego takes another section of hair. She closes her eyes and waits for him to finish.

"Okay," he says, ruffling his hand through her hair. It feels different than when her hair was long.

She opens her eyes and looks in the mirror. Diego has managed to make her hair look short and choppy. This the hair a real punk would have. She runs her hand through her hair. It feels weird to have it slip through her fingers so quickly. It's perfect.

"You look good," Diego says, eyes meeting hers in the mirror, and he smiles. She smiles back at him, and thinks about how she is going to make a band for the two of them.


End file.
